Virtual Recruitment Fairs, The Way of The Future

In late January, the Aboriginal Human Resource Council (AHRC) hosted the National Aboriginal Virtual Recruitment Fair, the first of its kind. This entailed finding a platform provider (iCongo, now Hybris) to host the event and provide technical support for setup.

AHRC asked Stonecircle, including Kory Goulais, Jennifer David and Ron Ryan to provide project management and support for building booths and the web environment. Many employers set up booths for a chance to see how the fair would work and to interact with interested Aboriginal job seekers. A total of 35 employers joined the fair:

1. Aboriginal Human Resource Council
2. Accenture Canada
3. Agnico-Eagle Mines
4. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
5. Alberta Health Services
6. Aon Inc.
7. Bayshore Health Care
8. BMO Canada
9. British Columbia Institute of Technology
10. Canada Post
11. Casino Rama
12. Confederation College (Ontario)
13. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
14. Citizenship and Immigration Canada
15. City of London
16. Correctional Services Canada
17. Exel Canada
18. Farm Credit Canada
19. Flint Energy
20. Fort McKay Group of Companies
21. HSBC Canada
22. Keewaytinook Okimakanak/Northern Chiefs Council
23. Legal Aid Ontario
24. Levert Executive Worldwide Inc.
25. Northern Health (BC)
26. Perimeter Aviation
27. PotashCorp
28. Reliance Offshore
29. Royal Bank of Canada
30. RSC Rental
31. SIAST
32. Statistics Canada
33. TD Bank Group
34. The Fairmont Banff Springs
35. Walter Energy

Throughout the event, a total of 187 entered the site to visit booths and speak with representatives. The AHRC platform received a total of 212 site visits during the event and had 620 individual registrations.

The event was a success. Many organizations told us they thought that Virtual Fairs were the "way of the future" and received tremendous value not only from being a part of the experience, but from the resumes that were loaded and obtained through the event. This has led to several interviews and hopefully a few hires within a couple of the organizations.

Here's a quote from one employer, sent to AHRC: "It certainly was a new experience for all of us and obviously the way of the future. I commend you and organization for realizing the great potential of virtual recruitment fairs. It certainly seemed from conversations on the chat that there were great opportunities available." Lou Anne Oldenhoff, City of London.

And here's one from one of the job seekers: "The fair was absolutely wonderful. I am totally impressed. I have been searching for jobs online constantly that suit my qualifications as well as my interests with no luck so far. I found three possible connections in one hour on your site!"

Congratulations to Craig Hall, Peggy Berndt, Subash Biswal and all the team at AHRC for a great event.